Media strategy and Iconoclasm
How Scarlett helped the Government to make a killing!
By Miguel Braganza
On Shivaji Jayanti the so-called "Taleigaokars" attacked the old Garrison
that now houses all types of Police Stations: the Traffic Police, the Women
& Child Police and the Town Police. The Town Police station was apparently
the target of the group allegedly led by the former Town & Country Planning
Minister. On the previous night, some guys had allegedly 'made' a Keeling on
the beach and let her die. While the media built one sand castle after
another for the cops and robbers as also the doctors and unprincipled
correspondents, the Government of Goa quietly did its own thing. No hype, no
glossy half-nude pictures for the Babus: the staid "Official Gazette"
announced to a limited number of people that the Government had promulgated
an Ordinance that was far more explosive than any artillery shell or missile
in the Indian Army, Navy or Air Force. It could destroy the entire state of
Goa, as silently as a galloping cancer!
The Indian Institute of Architects-Goa Chapter, the Goa Bachao Abhiyan,
Council for Social Justice & Peace, the Goa Democratic Decentralisation
Movement, Utt Goenkara and a host of other professional associations, NGOs
and CSOs have been demanding amendments to the Town and Country Planning
Act, 1974. From those who were fortunate enough to get a copy of the
Extra-Ordinary Gazette, the TCP [Amendment] Ordinance, 2008, received no
attention. Like the first autopsy report on Scarlett Keeling, the Official
Gazette indicated that Goa was dying a natural death, albeit assisted by the
various "developers" who were developing it like photographic film, under
the cover of darkness and secrecy. Like the Anjuna Police and the autopsy
report, the TCP Department kept the newshounds in the dark about the
Ordinance till the Bill was tabled in the House.
It is not just that 29 February was the "Leap" day of the Leap Year 2008. It
was not as if anybody remembered it was Moraji Desai's birthday and
abstained from alcohol or indulged in the "Water of Life". The Government
indulged in an ordinance while the Media indulged itself and 'painted the
town red' with Scarlett. As in the other rape case, the scars of Goa's rape
and murder are showing up in the second post mortem. It is called the TCP
[Amendment] Bill, 2008 that has been completed by a team of 40 doctors with
no dissenting notes or press "leaks" and the report has been sent to the
Governor. There it lies [no pun intended] till one day it will quietly
become an Act.
Since the Ordinance is valid till the end of the South West monsoons in Goa,
a good time to "convert" the Ordinance in to an Act is July. The torrential
rains will prevent people driving through the flooded streets of Panaji, let
alone think of a morcha or public rally. By then the state Government's
"projects" like acquiring land for industrial estates and re-sale to the
owners after 'conversion', making roads through one family's mining
concession for another family's jetty, cutting trees to make roads for
mining trucks through well demarcated "Private Forests" using another
amendment to another Act [ironically called the "Goa Preservation of Trees
Amendment Bill, 2008] and other such 'innocent looking' legislations, would
be well nigh completed or too far gone to reverse. When the Act is notified
in the Official Gazette, the hills will be green with grass and weeds and
the rivers would be a deep shade of red. Some pseudo environmentalist will
be 'commissioned' by the pseudo-secularists to state that all this is caused
by algal bloom due to migrants from the 'Red Sea' or to blame it on global
warming.
Those who do not remember their history are condemned to see it repeat. In
2004, when the Rain Trees on the Dayanand Bandodkar Marg were to be cut, the
then Chief Conservator of Forests, with a doctorate to boot, had stated to a
national newspaper that once a tree is 60 years old it stops being
functionally useful. Another unknown arboricultural "Consultant" gave a
report to the Government that facilitated the removal of trees. The current
Chief Minister was a part of that cabinet. He has honed his skills to
perfection during the hand-on training that would make the "On Job Training"
experience of vocational course students and GMC interns look like a Primary
School picnic. If Manohar-bab has someone to blame for the success of the
present dispensation, it is himself. He brought in the expert faculty to
train these guys and they have now, after the training, changed the company
they work in. One more 'expert' is in the wings, awaiting proper placement.
Way back on 30 November, 2007, this column had featured an article entitled
"GOs, NGOs, CSOs and CSWs: Understanding who is who and what is happening
around you!" After the Task Force on Regional Plan 2021 came into being and
the GBA was co-opted into it, most of the people in Goa let down their guard
and relaxed. What is happening now is simply that one is asked to pay "sopo"
as one would pay for the beach beds to relax on and beach umbrellas that
provide the shade. One does not get something for nothing! There is always
the price tag. The "bill" in this case has been presented in the house.
Please put in your contribution for we are going "Dutch". The British and
the Russians are unhappy with the hospitality in Goa. It is "Keeling" them.
So, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is time to get our act together. Let us work
during this summer and put our "house" in order. In the old Secretariat or
Adil Shah's palace, the contractors are working overtime to complete the
roof before the rains. Let us do likewise and save Goa before the rainy
days. There is work to do. NOW. (ENDS)
The Miguel Braganza weekly column at:
http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=482
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The above article appeared in the April 4, 2008 edition of the Gomantak
Times, Goa
